With zero experience of beer-making, Tommy Barnes quit his safe, corporate London job to start his own beer business. As if that weren’t precarious enough, he located it in the Loire Valley - the heart of French ‘wine country’. 

In this entertaining conversation with Olly, Tommy recounts how he followed his business dreams, balanced the books and perfected his beer recipe - even in the face of en masse Gallic shrug.

Tommy’s hilarious memoir, A Beer In The Loire, is out now (Muswell Press, £8.99). 

Elsewhere, in this month’s Zeitgeist, Ollie Peart prizes open his motherboard with a cheap screwdriver. Can he reboot his broken iPhone 4S, single-handed? Can the online fix-it community come to his aid? Or will this challenge go the way of his short-lived kefir concoctions?

Meanwhile, down the Foxhole, Alix Fox advises a couple of lady listeners with cancer diagnoses how to recover their mojo post-chemotherapy. Alix also investigates the world of ‘squirting’ records, in particular the work of ‘super soaker’ Lola Jean. It’s nothing if not varied.

Music this month comes from singer-songwriter LION and her haunting track, ‘Wolf’, out now.

If you have a question of sex for Alix, a challenge to put to Ollie, or a guest suggestion for Olly, just reach out via the Feedback form on our website, MODERNMANN.CO.UK. 

If you’d like to become a Mannbassador, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and/or buy us a beer - full details on our website.

This episode is brought to you in association with Beer52, the UK’s No.1 craft beer club. Get a free case of beer now at beer52.com/mann.

See you when our next episode drops, on September 1st.

Presenter: Olly Mann. Producer: Matt Hill. Contributors: Ollie Peart, Alix Fox, Tommy Barnes, Lion. Theme Music: Django Django. Graphic Design: Jenny Mann Design. Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2019. 

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